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98-604: In his early life Khun Sa received military equipment and training from both the Kuomintang and Burmese Army before claiming to fight for the independence of Shan State and going on to establish his own independent territory. He was dubbed the "Opium King" in Myanmar due to his massive opium smuggling operations in the Golden Triangle , where he was the dominant opium warlord from approximately 1976 to 1996. Although

196-686: A 39-man unit of Thai Rangers and local rebel guerillas attempted to assassinate Khun Sa at the insistence of the US Drug Enforcement Administration . The attempt failed, and almost the entire unit was wiped out. In January 1982 a 1,000-man force of the Thai Army appeared at the borders of his base area. The Thai force consisted of Thai rangers from Pak Thong Chai , local paramilitary border police from Tak , and several airplanes and helicopter gunships. The battle lasted for four days, with heavy casualties on both sides. At

294-547: A Thai election campaign. During the next two decades, from 1974 to 1994, Khun Sa became the dominant opium warlord in the Golden Triangle . The share of heroin sold in New York originating from the Golden Triangle rose from 5% to 80% during this period, and Khun Sa was responsible for 45% of that trade. The DEA assessed that Khun Sa's heroin was 90% pure, "the best in the business". During the height of his power, in

392-695: A coalition government. The two parties agreed to open multiparty talks on post-World War II political reforms via a Political Consultative Conference . This was included in the Double Tenth Agreement . This agreement was implemented by the Nationalist Government, who organized the first Political Consultative Assembly from 10 to 31 January 1946. Representatives of the Kuomintang, CCP, Chinese Youth Party , and China Democratic League , as well as independent delegates, attended

490-562: A dual-party state apparatus under the ideology of Dang Guo , effectively making it a one-party state ; however, existing parties continued to operate and new ones formed. After the end of the Second World War, and particularly after the passage of the constitution in 1946, the National Government was reconstituted to include multiple parties, in preparation for a full democratic government to come. In February 1928,

588-597: A foot in the construction industry". He ran a large ruby mine, and invested in a new highway running from Yangon to Mandalay . While living in Yangoon, Khun Sa maintained a low profile. His movements and communications with the outside world were restricted by the Burmese government, and his activities were monitored by Burmese intelligence. Following Khun Sa's retirement and the voluntary disbandment of his private army, many of his followers joined local militias controlled by

686-509: A hospital in Taunggyi, where they had been working. A division of soldiers from the Burmese army were tasked with rescuing the doctors, but failed. The doctors were ransomed for Khun Sa's freedom, and he was subsequently released in 1974. Khun Sa's release was secretly brokered by Thai General Kriangsak Chomanan . After his release Khun Sa maintained a good relationship with Chomanan, and in 1981 secretly contributed $ 50,000 US to support him in

784-523: A large fortune and four young Shan mistresses. Following Khun Sa's surrender, opium production in the Golden Triangle declined (this shift coincided with a dramatic rise in opium production in Afghanistan ). During his retirement he became a prominent local businessman, with investments in Yangon , Mandalay and Taunggyi . After his retirement he described himself as "a commercial real estate agent with

882-804: A major factor in the government's failure. The communist land redistribution movement was an important factor in the Nationalists' defeat, particularly because it linked the interests of peasants in the north and northeast to the Communists' success. In 1949, the People's Liberation captured Beijing and later Nanjing as well. The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in Beijing on 1 October 1949. The Republic of China central government relocated to Taipei on 7 December 1949, to Taiwan where Japan had laid an educational groundwork . Almost all of

980-558: A massive decline in Chinese agricultural prices (which were cheaper) and thus the income of rural farmers. In 1932, agricultural prices were 41 percent of 1921 levels. Rural incomes had fallen to 57 percent of 1931 levels by 1934 in some areas. Under this peculiar context for rural China, the Chinese Rural Reconstruction Movement was implemented by some social activists who graduated as professors of

1078-476: A memorial was held for Khun Sa in his former stronghold in Thailand, Thoed Thai , close to the Myanmar border. Asked why they honoured Khun Sa, the local people said that he helped the town to develop: he built the first paved roads in the area, the first school, and a well-equipped, 60-bed hospital staffed by Chinese doctors. He was building a hydro power plant, but after his departure construction on that project

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1176-409: A month. The war was estimated to have killed between 20 and 25 million Chinese and destroyed all that Chiang had built up in the preceding decade. Development of industries was severely hampered after the war by devastating conflict as well as the inflow of cheap American goods. By 1946, Chinese industries operated at 20 percent capacity and had 25 percent of the output of pre-war China. One effect of

1274-526: A program of crop substitution, education, and health care. The offer was rejected as blackmail by US authorities; and, rather than accepting his offer, the American government placed a $ 2 million bounty on him. He imposed a 40% tax on all opium growing, refining, and trafficking in return for protection from other warlords and the Myanmar government, but refused to discuss his total opium income with international reporters. To protect against air raids, he amassed

1372-480: A provisional constitution that established the one-party rule of the KMT and promised eventual democratization. In practice, this meant that Chiang Kai-Shek was able to continue authoritarian rule. Even had it been the KMT's intention, historians such as Edmund Fung argue that they may not have been able to establish a democracy under the circumstances of the time.( Fung 2000 , p. 30) Despite nominal reunification,

1470-471: A reward for his retirement and relocation to Yangon, his children were allowed to run and operate business interests in Myanmar. At the time of his death, in 2007, his favorite son was running a hotel and casino in the border town of Tachilek , while one of his daughters was a well-established businesswoman in Mandalay. In 1989 Khun Sa told Karen Petersen, a reporter for People magazine , that he also had

1568-444: A rival Shan organization, the "Shan State National Army". Khun Sa exported his heroin through a network of underworld contacts and brokers based in Thailand, Yunnan, Macao, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Once he sold his products to these dealers, he had no control of where they were transported. Some of his business associates believed that he was only a front man for underworld Chinese drug interests, and many were terrified of him. By 1995

1666-715: A second wife in Bangkok. When he moved to Yangon he brought four young mistresses with him. All four were teenagers from Kengtung , in eastern Shan State. Khun Sa is mentioned in Japanese manga and anime Black Lagoon , for his role on the drug trade in Southeast Asia as well as one of his subordinates being targeted by the NSA . Khun Sa was featured in a 1990 edition of The Cook Report entitled "Heroin Highway". Khun Sa

1764-556: A supply of locally made rockets and Surface-to-air-missiles purchased in Laos. In the 1990s Khun Sa's influence and power in the region declined. Part of this was due to the opening of new trade routes for heroin that ran from Yunnan to ports in southeastern China, which reduced his importance as a middleman for the drug along the Thai border. Other drug trafficking routes opened up to India, Laos, and Cambodia, which Khun Sa did not control. In

1862-439: A working relationship with the Burmese military and intelligence services, who again tolerated his presence in return for fighting other ethnic and communist rebels. He maintained a cordial relationship with the highest-ranking Burmese general in the region, Maung Aye , and established relationships with many foreign socialites and business people, including Lady and Lord Brockett , and James "Bo" Gritz . In 1984 his forces bombed

1960-554: Is an airport serving Heho , a town in Kalaw Township , Taunggyi District , Shan State , Myanmar . It is the main airport serving Inle Lake and Taunggyi the former of the top tourist destinations of Myanmar. The airport served as an airbase both for the Allies and the Japanese during World War II. The airbase was heavily bombed by the Allies. Evidence of aircraft bunker revetments and bomb craters can still be seen on

2058-719: Is disputed and is another aspect of the disputed political status of Taiwan . After World War II, the civil war between the ruling Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) resumed, despite attempts at mediation by the United States. The Nationalist Government began drafting the Constitution of the Republic of China under a National Assembly, but was boycotted by the CCP. With the promulgation of

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2156-534: Is now known as the February 28 Incident . Mainstream estimates of casualties range from 18,000 to 30,000, mainly Taiwanese elites. The 28 February Incident has had far-reaching effects on subsequent Taiwanese history . From 1945 to 1947, under United States mediation, especially through the Marshall Mission , the Nationalists and Communists agreed to start a series of peace talks aiming at establishing

2254-643: Is portrayed by Ric Young in the 2007 film American Gangster . Khun Sa is mentioned in Hong Kong movie To Be Number One in which real life triad boss Ng Sik-ho connects to him circa 1973 in order to supply Hong Kong domestic supply and export. The film includes footage of Khun Sa. Khun Sa is mentioned in Jo Nesbø 's Cockroaches , the second novel in the Harry Hole series. Nationalist government The Nationalist government , officially

2352-737: The Academia Sinica and the Central Bank of China . In 1932, China for the first time sent teams to the Olympic Games . The Nationalists faced a new challenge with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, with hostilities continuing through the Second Sino-Japanese War , part of World War II , from 1937 to 1945. The government of the Republic of China retreated from Nanjing to Chongqing . In 1945, after

2450-696: The Chinese Civil War (1927–49), with central authority strongest during the Nanjing Decade (1927–37), when most of China came under the control of the Kuomintang (KMT) under an authoritarian one-party state . At the end of World War II in 1945, the Empire of Japan surrendered control of Taiwan and its island groups to the Allies , and Taiwan was placed under the Republic of China's administrative control. The legitimacy of this transfer

2548-639: The Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist Party and the CCP. Chiang Kai-shek pushed the CCP into the interior as he sought to destroy them, and moved the Nationalist Government to Nanjing in 1927. Leftists within the KMT still allied to the CCP, led by Wang Jingwei , had established a rival Nationalist Government in Wuhan two months earlier, but soon joined Chiang in Nanjing in August 1927. By

2646-662: The Mong Tai Army (MTA). Through that alliance he gained control of a 150-mile Thai-Burma border area from his base at Ho Mong , a village near Mae Hong Son , to Mae Sai . When the Americans donated several million dollars to the Burmese government for "drug suppression" in 1987, the Burmese military fabricated reports, leaked to the Thai press, that they had attacked and defeated Khun Sa in battles involving thousands of Burmese and Thai soldiers and several F-5E jets. However, these reports were completely false, and no action

2744-695: The National Government of the Republic of China , refers to the government of the Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party. Following the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution , revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen was elected to be China's provisional president and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China . To preserve national unity, Sun ceded

2842-483: The National Revolutionary Army . Chiang Kai-shek was appointed as the first Chairman of the National Government , a position he would retain until 1931. The Organic Law also stipulated that the Kuomintang, through its National Congress and Central Executive Committee, would exercise sovereign power during the period of political tutelage, and the KMT's Political Council would guide and superintend

2940-473: The Northern Expedition governed the country as a one-party state under the Kuomintang, and was subsequently given international recognition as the legitimate representative of China. The Nationalist government would then experience many challenges such as the Second Sino-Japanese War , and the Chinese Civil War . The government was in place until it was replaced by the current Government of

3038-651: The Political Tutelage of the Kuomintang. However, periodic famines continued: in Northern China from 1928 to 1930, in Sichuan from 1936 to 1937, and in Henan from 1942 to 1943. In total, these famines cost at least 11.7 million lives. GDP growth averaged 3.9 per cent a year from 1929 to 1941 and per capita GDP about 1.8 per cent. Among other institutions, the Nationalist Government founded

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3136-600: The Republic of China was established in Guangzhou . The following year, as Generalissimo of the National Revolutionary Army, Chiang Kai-shek became the de facto leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), or Chinese Nationalist Party. He especially headed the right-wing of the Nationalist Party, while the Communists formed part of the Party's left-wing. Chiang led the Northern Expedition through China with

3234-602: The Second Sino-Japanese War against the Imperial Japanese Army , and in the Chinese Civil War against the People's Liberation Army . During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the armed forces of the CCP were nominally incorporated into the National Revolutionary Army (while retaining separate commands), but broke away to form the People's Liberation Army shortly after the end of the war. With

3332-457: The " retrocession " of Taiwan to the Republic of China and established a provincial government on the island. The military administration of the ROC extended over Taiwan, which led to widespread unrest and increasing tensions between local Taiwanese and mainlanders. The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered an island-wide unrest, which was brutally suppressed with military force in what

3430-585: The 1960s Khun Sa became one of Burma's most notorious drug traffickers. He challenged the local dominance of the Kuomintang remnants in Shan State, but in 1967 he was decisively defeated in a battle involving both the Kuomintang and the Laotian army on the Thai–Burma–Laos border. In that battle he led a convoy of 500 men and 300 mules into Laos, but the convoy was ambushed by Kuomintang forces en route. As

3528-529: The 1980s, Khun Sa controlled 70% of the opium production in Burma, and built a large-scale infrastructure of heroin refining factories to dominate the market for that drug. He may have once supplied a quarter of the world's heroin supply. He commanded 20,000 men, and his personal army was better armed than the Burmese military. His notoriety led the American government to put a $ 2 million bounty on him. The American diplomat to Thailand referred to him as "the worst enemy

3626-405: The 1990s he had co-opted many of the most high-ranking military leaders in the country. By 1996 they made a secret agreement for Khun Sa to surrender to the Burmese government, under the understanding that he would receive government protection and that he would not be extradited. Khun Sa surrendered to the Burmese government on January 5, 1996, gave up control of his army, and moved to Rangoon with

3724-606: The American ambassador to Thailand called him "the worst enemy the world has", he successfully co-opted the support of both the Thai and Burmese governments at various times. After the American Drug Enforcement Administration uncovered and broke the link between Khun Sa and his foreign brokers, he "surrendered" to the Burmese government in 1996, disbanding his army and moving to Yangon with his wealth and mistresses. After his retirement some of his forces refused to surrender and continued fighting

3822-607: The Art of War and Luo Guanzhong' s Romance of the Three Kingdoms , after which he developed a political philosophy that he exercised later in life: “In politics there are no lifelong friends, and no lifelong foes... They change according to the gains and losses. A good leader must be able to take advantage of every change and utilize it.” After Khun Sa's arrest his militia unit dissolved, but his more loyal followers went underground, and in 1973 abducted two Soviet doctors from

3920-503: The Burmese army. Others, who had believed that he was a Shan patriot, were devastated and refused to accept the ceasefire. They went underground and continued to fight the Burmese army under the name of the " Shan State Army - South ". The Burmese army somewhat disrupted the local opium trade, and the largest opium producer in the Golden Triangle became the United Wa State Army. Khun Sa died on 26 October 2007 in Yangon at

4018-406: The Burmese government, and told international reporters that his people only grew drugs to pay for clothes and food. In 1977 he offered to take his territory's entire opium crop off the black market by selling it to the American government, but his offer was rejected. Although Khun Sa was not the mastermind of the local drug trade, he controlled areas where drugs were grown and refined. The owners of

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4116-558: The Chiang's Nationalist Government relied heavily on the support of warlords such as Ma Hushan , Yan Xishan , and Chang Hsueh-liang to exert control on the provinces. The loyalty of these figures was often highly suspect, and they frequently engaged in acts of open defiance, as in the Xi'an Incident of 1936, or even rebellion . In alliance with local landlords and other power-brokers, they blocked moderate land reforms that might have benefits

4214-606: The DEA managed to discover and break the link between Khun Sa and his foreign brokers. Khun Sa's income then began to decline, and he began to consider retirement. In public the Burmese military claimed that they wanted to hang Khun Sa. They conducted small raids against him, and they carried out public bonfires of "heroin" (largely stones and grass). Despite the Burmese leadership's public attitude towards Khun Sa, they understood that he had long controlled Burma's most lucrative export crop (estimated at $ 600 million US per year in 1997), and by

4312-907: The Fourth Plenary Session of the 2nd Kuomintang National Congress held in Nanjing passed the Reorganization of the National Government Act. This act stipulated the national government was to be directed and regulated under the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, with the Committee of the National Government being elected by KMT Central Committee. Under the national government was seven ministries – Interior, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Transport, Justice, Agriculture and Mines, and Commerce. There were also additional institutions such as

4410-519: The KMT itself was disunified, with the pro-Chiang factions of the CC Clique , Political Study Clique, and fascist-inspired Blue Shirts Society opposed by a left-wing faction under Wang Jingwei and a right-wing faction influenced by Hu Hanmin . To control the opposing KMT factions, Chiang relied increasingly on the National Revolutionary Army . Economic growth and social improvements were mixed. The Kuomintang supported women's rights and education,

4508-401: The KMT. Chiang decided to strike first and purged the Communists , killing thousands of them. At the same time, other violent conflicts took place in the south of China where peasant associations supported by the CCP were attacking landlords and local gentry, who formed a base of political support for the KMT right-wing and recruitment for Nationalist soldiers. These events eventually led to

4606-472: The Kuomintang reunified the country in 1928, China entered a period of relative prosperity despite civil war and Japanese aggression. In 1937, the Japanese invaded and laid China to waste in eight years of war. The era also saw additional boycott of Japanese products . Chinese industries continued to develop in the 1930s with the advent of the Nanjing decade in the 1930s when Chiang Kai-shek unified most of

4704-511: The National Government in the execution of important national affairs and that the council has the power to interpret or amend the organic law. Authority within the Nationalist government ultimately lay with Chiang Kai-shek. All major policy changes on military, diplomatic, or economic issues required his approval. According to historian Odd Arne Westad , "no other leader within the GMD had

4802-774: The Republic of China in the newly promulgated Constitution of the Republic of China of 1948. The oldest surviving republic in East Asia , the Republic of China was formally established on 1   January 1912 in mainland China following the Xinhai Revolution , which itself began with the Wuchang Uprising on 10   October 1911, replacing the Qing dynasty and ending nearly three thousand years of imperial rule in China. Central authority waxed and waned in response to warlordism (1915–28), Japanese invasion (1937–45), and

4900-423: The Supreme Court, Control Yuan, and the General Academy. With the promulgation of the Organic Law of the National Government in October 1928, the government was reorganized into five different branches or Yuan, namely the Executive Yuan , Legislative Yuan , Judicial Yuan , Examination Yuan as well as the Control Yuan . The Chairman of the National Government was to be the head-of-state and commander-in-chief of

4998-403: The United States with tangible but limited progress in modernizing the tax, infrastructural, economical, cultural, and educational equipment and mechanisms of rural regions. The social activists actively coordinated with the local governments in towns and villages since the early 1930s. However, this policy was subsequently neglected and canceled by the Nationalist government due to rampant wars and

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5096-449: The abolition of polygamy, and foot binding. The government of the Republic of China under Chiang's leadership also enacted a women's quota in the parliament with reserved seats for women. During the Nanjing Decade , the spread of education increased the literacy rate across China and promoted the ideals of Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People of democracy, republicanism, science, constitutionalism, and Chinese Nationalism based on

5194-423: The administration itself. As Chiang Kai-Shek told the state council: "Our organization becomes worse and worse ... many staff members just sit at their desks and gaze into space, others read newspapers and still others sleep." Corruption was endemic at all levels of government. The tension between Chiang's centralizing tendencies and the warlords who supported him led to friction and inconsistent direction. Even

5292-441: The age of 73. The cause of death was not known, though he had suffered from diabetes , high blood pressure , and heart disease . He was cremated four days after his death. His remains were cremated and buried at Yayway Cemetery , North Okkalapa Township, Yangon, Myanmar. Before his death he had decided not to be buried in Shan state, due to fears that his tomb would be vandalized or destroyed. Soon after he died, in November 2007,

5390-554: The authority to force through even the simplest decisions. The practical power of high-ranking officials like ministers or the head of the Executive Yuan was more closely tied to their relationship with Chiang than with the formal authority of their position. Chiang created multiple layers of power in his administration which he sometimes played off each other to prevent individuals or cliques from gathering power that could oppose his authority. The Nationalist government exercised relatively little control in China's border regions, where

5488-509: The battle was going on, the Laotian army (which was also involved in the opium/heroin trade) bombed the battleground and stole the opium. This defeat demoralized him and his forces. The Laotian army continued to ambush his mule trains for the next few years, and his military strength declined. In 1969, delegates from a local ethnic rebel group, the Shan State Army , began to hold secret talks with Khun Sa, attempting to persuade him to change sides and join them. He expressed interest, but details of

5586-431: The black markets in Laos and Thailand, and were soon better equipped than the Burmese army. By the late 1960s Khun Sa was one of the most important and powerful militia leaders in Shan state. He held an important pass in Loi Maw, restricting the movements of local communist rebels. During the period, while he was nominally supporting the Burmese government, he maintained contact with Kuomintang intelligence agents. Through

5684-415: The border from Thailand into Burma illegally. Khun Sa offered to sell his entire heroin crop to the Australian Government for A$ 50m a year (paid in either cash or agricultural aid) for the next eight years, a move that would have immediately destroyed half the world's heroin supply. The Australian Government rejected the offer, with Senator Gareth Evans declaring: "The Australian Government is simply not in

5782-429: The business of paying criminals to refrain from criminal activity." In September 1989, when American photojournalist Karen Petersen interviewed the General for People magazine at his camp in Ner Mone, Shan State, he claimed he had a total army of 12,000 men. Soon thereafter, in January 1990 Khun Sa was indicted in absentia by an American federal grand jury on drug trafficking charges. Following his indictment, he

5880-412: The conclusion of the battle Khun Sa was forced to retreat back into Burma. Within a year of losing his base in Thailand, Khun Sa rebuilt his army, defeated a local Burmese rebel group along the Burmese border between Shan State and Northwest Thailand, and took control of the region. He relocated his base of operations to the border town of Homein , established a local heroin-refining industry, and resumed

5978-415: The conference in Chongqing. However, shortly afterward, the two parties failed to reach an agreement and the civil war resumed. In the context of political and military animosity, the National Assembly was summoned by the Nationalists without the participation of the CCP and promulgated the Constitution of the Republic of China . The constitution was criticized by the CCP, and led to the final break between

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6076-408: The constitution, the Nationalist Government abolished itself and was replaced by the Government of the Republic of China . Following their loss of the Civil War, the Nationalist Government retreated and moved their capital to Taipei while claiming that they were the legitimate government of the mainland. After Sun's death on 12 March 1925, four months later on 1 July 1925, the National Government of

6174-399: The country and brought political stability. China's industries developed and grew from 1927 to 1931. Though badly hit by the Great Depression from 1931 to 1935 and Japan's occupation of Manchuria in 1931, industrial output recovered by 1936. By 1936, industrial output had recovered and surpassed its previous peak in 1931 prior to the Great Depression's effects on China. This is best shown by

6272-491: The early 1990s his organization began to be challenged militarily by another nominally independent ethnic rebel organization in northern Myanmar, the United Wa State Army . This conflict put pressure on his leadership. Khun Sa's surrender to the Burmese government coincided with, and may have been motivated by, a loss of support from other Shan leaders. After his front man within the Mong Tai Army, his longtime subordinate, Chairman Moh Heng, died of cancer in 1991, his control over

6370-401: The following year, Chiang's army had captured Beijing after overthrowing the Beiyang government and unified the entire nation , at least nominally, marking the beginning the Nanjing decade . According to Sun Yat-sen's "Three Stages of Revolution" theory, the KMT was to rebuild China in three phases: the first stage was military unification, which was carried out with the Northern Expedition;

6468-662: The former sites of the nationalist government are headquartered in the city of Nanjing, the capital at the time, with only one exception. When the city of Nanjing was not captured by the Nationalist Government, they chose the following buildings as their headquarters. [REDACTED] Communist Party / [REDACTED] Soviet Republic ( [REDACTED] Red Army ) → Liberated Area ( [REDACTED] 8th Route Army , New Fourth Army , etc. → [REDACTED] People's Liberation Army ) → [REDACTED]   People's Republic of China Heho Airport Heho Airport ( Burmese : ဟဲဟိုးလေဆိပ် ) ( IATA : HEH , ICAO : VYHH )

6566-442: The fortified residence of his rival, Li Wenhuan , in Chiang Mai . His organization maintained a trade organization in the government-held city of Taunggyi and re-established cordial relations with the Thai intelligence service after relocating to Burma. In 1985, Khun Sa merged his Shan United Army with another rebel group, the " Tai Revolutionary Council" of Moh Heng, a faction of the Shan United Revolutionary Army (SURA), forming

6664-402: The government, but he engaged in "legitimate" business projects, especially mining and construction. He died in 2007 at the age of 73. Today, his children are prominent businesspeople in Myanmar. He was primarily known by his Han Chinese name, Chang Chi-fu (Zhang Qifu). When he was three years old, his father died. His mother married a local tax collector, but two years later she died as well. He

6762-402: The intention of defeating the warlords and unifying the country. The National Revolutionary Army received significant aid from the Soviet Union ; Chiang himself was surrounded by Soviet military advisors. Much of the Nationalist Party, however, became convinced, not without reason, that the Communists, under recent orders from the Comintern, wanted to break from the United Front and get rid of

6860-445: The lack of resources following the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Second Chinese Civil War . In 1937, Japan invaded China and the resulting warfare laid waste to China. Most of the prosperous east China coast was occupied by the Japanese, who carried out various atrocities such as the Rape of Nanjing in 1937 and random massacres of whole villages. In one anti-guerrilla sweep in 1942, the Japanese killed up to 200,000 civilians in

6958-434: The local heroin refineries were from Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and paid Khun Sa in exchange for the protection of his army. American government workers, who visited Khun Sa's compound in 1977 to negotiate with him, believed that the Thai government tolerated his presence on Thailand's northwestern border in order for his army to serve as a buffer between them and more radical revolutionary groups active in Laos and Burma at

7056-599: The meeting were discovered by the Burmese army, and he was arrested On October 29, 1969, at Heho Airport in Taunggyi while returning from a business trip in Tachilek , near the Thai border. After his capture he was charged with high treason for his contacts with the rebels (but not for drug trafficking, which he had government permission to do), and he was imprisoned in Mandalay . While imprisoned Khun Sa read Sun Tzu 's

7154-434: The only formal education that Khun Sa received was as a boy, when he spent a few years as a Buddhist novice , and for the rest of his life he remained functionally illiterate. In the early 1950s he received some basic military training from the Kuomintang , which had fled into the border regions of Burma from Yunnan upon its defeat in the Chinese Civil War in 1949. He formed his first independent band of young men when he

7252-512: The organization began to weaken. After Moh Heng's death he called a Shan "parliament", attracting hundreds of representatives from across the region. At this meeting he declared the creation of an independent Shan State, with himself as president. Many of his rivals from within the Mong Tai Army refused to accept his leadership, claiming that he was using the independence movement primarily as a front for his drug running operations, and formed

7350-531: The political fragmentation along ethnic lines that began after the fall of the Qing dynasty continued. The National Revolutionary Army ( NRA ) ( traditional Chinese : 國民革命軍 ; simplified Chinese : 国民革命军 ; pinyin : Guómín Gémìng Jūn ; Wade–Giles : Kuo-min Ke-ming Chün ), pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928 and 1947 as 國軍 or National Army

7448-461: The presidency to military strongman Yuan Shikai , who established the Beiyang government . After a failed attempt to install himself as Emperor of China , Yuan died in 1916, leaving a power vacuum which resulted in China being divided into several warlord fiefs and rival governments. They were nominally reunified in 1928 under the Nanjing -based government led by Chiang Kai-shek , which after

7546-425: The promulgation of the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1947 and the formal end of the KMT party-state, the National Revolutionary Army was renamed the Republic of China Armed Forces , with the bulk of its forces forming the Republic of China Army , which retreated to Taiwan in 1949 . Forced conscription campaigns were conducted by the military; they are described by Rudolph Rummel as such: Then there

7644-504: The ratification that not only would it not recognize the ROC constitution, but all bills passed by the Nationalist administration would be disregarded as well. Zhou Enlai challenged the legitimacy of the National Assembly in 1947 by accusing the KMT of hand-picking the members of the National Assembly 10 years earlier; claiming they thus could not legitimately represent the Chinese people. The National Government governed under

7742-666: The rural economy was hit hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s, in which an overproduction of agricultural goods lead to massive falling prices for China as well as an increase in foreign imports (as agricultural goods produced in western countries were "dumped" in China). In 1931, imports of rice in China amounted to 21 million bushels compared with 12 million in 1928. Other goods saw even more staggering increases. In 1932, 15 million bushels of grain were imported compared with 900,000 in 1928. This increased competition leads to

7840-491: The rural poor. Instead, the poor peasants remained a consistent source of recruits for the Communist Party. While weakened by frequent massacres and purges—historian Rudolph Rummel estimated that 1,654,000 people were killed by the KMT in anti-Communist purges during this period—the Communists were able to survive and posed a major latent threat to the regime. However, perhaps the biggest challenges came from within

7938-426: The second was " political tutelage  [ zh ] " which was a provisional government led by the KMT to educate people about their political and civil rights, and the third stage would be constitutional government.( Fung 2000 , p. 30) By 1928, the Nationalists claimed that they had succeeded in reunifying China and were beginning the second stage, the period of so-called "tutelage". In 1931, they promulgated

8036-482: The time. After combined forces of the Thai military and remaining Kuomintang in Thailand defeated entrenched Communist rebels in Northwest Thailand in 1981, American officials began to pressure the Thai government to expel Khun Sa. In July 1981, Thai authorities announced a 50,000 baht ($ 2,000 US) bounty on his head. In August this was raised to 500,000 baht, "valid until 30 Sept. 1982". In October 1981

8134-599: The trends in Chinese GDP . In 1932, China's GDP peaked at US$ 28.8 billion, before falling to $ 21.3 billion by 1934 and recovering to $ 23.7 billion by 1935. By 1930, foreign investment in China totaled $ 3.5 billion, with Japan leading ($ 1.4 billion) and the United Kingdom at 1 billion. By 1948, however, the capital stock had halted with investment dropping to only $ 3 billion, with the US and Britain leading. However,

8232-470: The two sides. The full-scale civil war resumed from early 1947. After the National Assembly election , the drafted Constitution was adopted by the National Assembly on 25 December 1946, promulgated by the National Government on 1 January 1947, and went into effect on 25 December 1947. The Constitution was seen as the third and final stage of Kuomintang reconstruction of China. Chiang Kai-shek

8330-464: The war of eight years, Japan surrendered and the Republic of China, under the name "China", became one of the founding members of the United Nations . The government returned to Nanjing in 1946. Following the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II , Taiwan was surrendered to the Allies , with ROC troops accepting the surrender of the Japanese garrison. The government of the ROC proclaimed

8428-405: The war was a massive increase in government control of industries. In 1936, government-owned industries were only 15% of GDP. However, the ROC government took control of many industries in order to fight the war. In 1938, the ROC established a commission for industries and mines to control and supervise firms, as well as instilling price controls. By 1942, 70 percent of the capital of Chinese industry

8526-870: The way, sometimes less than 50 percent reaching camp alive. Then recruit camp was no better, with hospitals resembling Nazi concentration camps like Buchenwald. Probably 3,081,000 died during the Sino-Japanese War; likely another 1,131,000 during the Civil War – 4,212,000 dead in total. Just during conscription. Because of the Nationalist government's increasing inability to fund the military, especially after Japan's success in Operation Ichigo , Nationalist authorities overlooked military corruption and smuggling. The Nationalist army increasingly turned to raiding villages to press-gang peasants into service and force marching them to assigned units. After

8624-592: The world has". After his release Khun Sa went underground, and in 1976 rejoined and reformed his forces in Ban Hin Taek , in northern Thailand, close to the border with Burma. Soon after he began to reform his forces he adopted the Shan name "Khun Sa" (literally "Prince Prosperous") for the first time. He renamed his group the Shan United Army , began to claim that he was fighting for Shan autonomy against

8722-484: Was also elected as the 1st President of the Republic of China under the constitution by the National Assembly in 1948, with Li Zongren being elected as vice-president. The Nationalist Government was abolished on 20 May 1948, after the Government of the Republic of China was established with the presidential inauguration of Chiang. The CCP, though invited to the convention that drafted it, boycotted and declared after

8820-449: Was based in nearby Lashio . In return for fighting local Shan rebels , the government allowed him to use their land and roads to grow and trade opium and heroin . By allowing them to be financed by opium production, the Burmese government hoped that these local militia units could be self-supporting. Many government-supported warlords, including Khun Sa, used their profits from the opium trade to buy large supplies of military equipment from

8918-511: Was halted. He also built an 18-hole golf course for foreign visitors and a functional water and electrical infrastructure. The local Thai authorities ensured that the ceremony remained relatively simple. Khun Sa was married to Nan Kyayon (died 1993) with whom he had eight children: five sons and three daughters. His children, listed in order of their birth, are Nang Long, Zarm Merng, Zarm Herng, Nang Kang, Zarm Zeun, Zarm Myat, Nang Lek, and Zarm Mya. All of Khun Sa's children were educated abroad. As

9016-677: Was interviewed by Canadian journalist Patricia Elliott at his base, accompanied by photojournalist Subin Kheunkaew, for the Bangkok Post . At the time he was acting as head of a coalition of Shan rebel forces, the Mong Tai Army (MTA), a force he then claimed consisted of 18,000 troops, a reserve of 5,000, and a local militia numbering 8,000. At this time he named his price for opium eradication as US$ 210 million in UN assistance, US$ 265 million in foreign investment and US$ 89.5 million in private aid for

9114-425: Was owned by the government. Following the war with Japan, Chiang acquired Taiwan from Japan and renewed his struggle with the Communists. However, the corruption of the KMT, as well as hyperinflation as a result of trying to fight the civil war, resulted in mass unrest throughout the Republic and sympathy for the communists. Nearly all studies of the collapse of the Nationalist government identify hyperinflation as

9212-427: Was raised largely by his Han grandfather, who was the headman of the village in which he was born, Loi Maw. The Han side of his family had been living in Shan State since the 18th century. He received no formal education but had military training as a soldier with Chinese Nationalist forces that had fled into Burma after the victory of Mao's Communists in 1949. Although his stepbrothers were sent to missionary schools,

9310-402: Was sixteen, and when his organization grew to several hundred men he became independent of the Kuomintang. After establishing his independence he frequently switched sides between the government and various rebel armies, as the situation suited him. In 1963 he re-formed his army into a local " Ka Kwe Ye " ("Home guard") unit, under the control of the northeast command of the Burmese army, which

9408-411: Was taken against him. In reality, the Burmese and Thai governments were cooperating with him to build a highway into the region that he controlled. The Burmese army did conduct anti-narcotics operations at the time in many other areas of Burma, but the area controlled by Khun Sa was one of the few areas not targeted. In 1988, Khun Sa was interviewed by Australian journalist Stephen Rice , who had crossed

9506-555: Was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule beginning in 1928. Originally organized with Soviet aid as a means for the KMT to unify China against warlordism , the National Revolutionary Army fought major engagements in the Northern Expedition against the Chinese Beiyang Army warlords , in

9604-482: Was the process of conscription. This was a deadly affair in which men were kidnapped for the army, rounded up indiscriminately by press-gangs or army units among those on the roads or in the towns and villages, or otherwise gathered together. Many men, some the very young and old, were killed resisting or trying to escape. Once collected, they would be roped or chained together and marched, with little food or water, long distances to camp. They often died or were killed along

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